Since the brutal execution of four Lakewood Washington Police officers less than a week ago there has been a lot more information uncovered about exactly how violent an offender Maurice Clemmons was even after he was sentenced to 108 year in prison. As someone who works with prisoners who's offenses range from failure to pay child support to those charged with capital murder I know a little something about inmates and having seen this video I am even more bothered than Mike Huckabee made it possible for Maurice Clemmons to be released.
While many people have attempted to deflect some of the blame because there were many mistakes made after he was released from prison that could have kept him in prison after he violated his parole and committed other crimes after his release. Mistakes are made everyday in the course of legal proceedings and just life in general but these mistakes never should have been able to be made. You must look back to the first thing that caused Maurice Clemmons to be released from prison and that is the signature of Mike Huckabee in making him able to be paroled. Yes, the parole board recommended him for release but if it was not for the signature of the then Governor the parole board would not have even heard his case. More disturbing is the fact that this violent offender did not cease from being violent after he was incarcerated.
While in prison Maurice Clemmons had a disciplinary file that should have automatically told Huckabee that he was still violent and even prison was not stopping it. Some of the offenses he committed as a prisoner were aggravated battery, assault, drug and weapon possession, a fire arms possession charge and even sexual misconduct. During his trial he attempted to grab a deputy's weapon and had to be shackled to the charge to prevent any further disturbances from happening in the courtroom. Again, Little Rock's Chief Prosecutor even said it himself that although mistakes were made they should never have been possible to be made.
Sadly, Mike Huckabee refused to acknowledge how violent of a prisoner Maurice Clemmons was while he was incarcerated. During this interview with Drew Griffith when he said that he read "every page" of the file he still recommended him for clemency and referred to his 108 year prison sentence. Are there excessive and unjust sentences handed out in our country's criminal justice system? Yes, absolutely, but again Mike Huckabee proved he was asleep at the wheel or just too ignorant to look at the facts of this specific case. Mike Huckabee said that he believed Maurice Clemmons was a changed man from the teenager when he was sentenced for aggravated robbery. Robbery in and of itself is a violent crime and I'm sure Senator Corker's daughter can attests to that after her unfortunate carjacking last night in the district. (Carjacking is essentially robbing someone of their car, not theft but physically taking a car from a person)
Our leaders in Government have a very sacred responsibility to protect their citizens. It is probably the most important responsibility they have and Huckabee failed beyond words. I was absolutely speechless he refused to acknowledge or even attempt to justify when he made Clemmons able to be released after he supposedly "read" every page in his file which included his violent prison record. Mike Huckabee's failure in this case is the reason why four police officers, our society's protectors were brutally executed on Sunday and why four families will only have their memories to cherish.
I've provided the links below to the Officer Down Memorial Page for the four officers.
